Μία αξιολόγηση της αξιολόγησης των δημοσίων υπαλλήλων

Abstract

The reform of the evaluation process of civil servants has been considered as a neces-sary condition for the reorganization of the country's administrative structure. It is noteworthy that during the last few decades the legislator introduced several improve-ments, without, however, bringing about the expected results. As can be seen from an examination of the relevant regulations, the causes of inefficiency are several; the fail-ure to relate the process to the other aspects of the civil servant body's organization, the unwillingness on the part of the administration to fully implement and provide feedback on the system, and the reluctance or even refusal of the employees to participate. In re-cent years, aspects of the above concerns have been adequately addressed, mainly to the extent to which it has become clear that the evaluation process alone in a system with-out a fixed hierarchy, with poorly defined objectives and employees without a clear job description cannot achieve the desired result. Law no. 4269/2016, utilizing the regulato-ry framework of previous legislation, mainly the Presidential Decree no 318/1992, but also the administrative experience of other European countries, has incorporated the evaluation system into a broader framework of reforms. The reactions of the employees' representatives brought about significant changes to the original text of the law. How-ever, again the results do not seem to be as expected. In any case, evaluation is a tool that contributes to the consolidation of the principles of the rule of law, meritocracy, equality and economic efficiency. It is therefore essential to create the conditions for the implementation of an objective and effective evaluation system for civil servants. Ad-dressing the distortions highlighted above is a necessary but perhaps not sufficient con-dition. Evaluation is unlikely to produce significant results if it is not directly linked to improving the position of meritorious officials in terms of hierarchical promotion or salary progression. The paper is organized in four chapters. The first introduces the concepts which are the subject of the paper, namely the evaluation and its methods from a theoretical point of view, as well as its scope. The second chapter attempts to summarise as briefly the leg-islative initiatives up to 2016 as possible, as well as the currently valid Law No. 4369/2016, as amended in places after 2017. The aim is to investigate what the law has taken over from earlier regulations, what are its innovative aspects, and what are the in-fluences of evaluation systems of EU countries. The third chapter examines the attitude of labour unions towards evaluation, especially after the enactment of Law 436969. 7 4369/2016. These reactions, moreover, account for some of the amendments to the law, which are discussed in chapter two. The fourth chapter of the paper seeks to identify the reasons why at least part of the civil servants' body abstained from the evaluation pro-cess both under Law no. 4250/204 as well as the Law. 4369/2016. As a case study, two departments of the Ministry of Public Administration are examined. Finally, an overall assessment of evaluation as a practice directly related to the rule of law is attempted, as well as the prerequisites for its proper implementation. Taking into account the data from the two previous chapters, proposals for improving the system are also examined.